Transnational education, highly relevant in Asian region

Transnational education, highly relevant in Asian region

Dewi Anggraeni, Contributor, Melbourne, Australia

To call education an industry, then to go ahead marketing it,
often brings out strong opinions from those who are decidedly
against it.

The concept that education is a human right, and as such
should not be a commodity, however, is becoming less attainable
every day.

Very few things, in fact, evade becoming a commodity these
days. Putting the polemics aside, let us face the fact that in a
number of developed countries, education is even an export
commodity. We are well and truly in an era of transnational
education.

In the 17th IDP (International Development Program) Australian
International Education conference held in Melbourne last week,
nobody among the approximately 1500 delegates from over 35
countries, including Australia, openly questioned this accepted
fact. Instead, panels and speeches discussed and explored ways of
making the education industry more competitive and more
attractive to prospective clients.

Delegates from exporter countries listened attentively to
suggestions from importer countries. On the converse, those from
importer countries were in the position of being able to pick and
choose which institutions best met their needs.

To accept the premise that education is an industry obviously
has some advantages. Suppliers become more attuned to the needs
of buyers -- and they are kept alert and motivated to
continuously improve the quality of their products.

Only 20 years ago, students from developing countries who came
to study in a developed country, be they full-fee payers or
scholarships recipients, would just have to overcome their
culture shock privately and quietly, adjust to the country's
often different teaching and learning methods -- even curriculum
contents, or sink.

While this treatment may be good for the soul eventually, it
is no longer ideal for today's world, where immediacy is the key
word; where what you learn must be able to be used immediately,
which usually means that while you are studying, you are actually
forging an income-earning tool, which is presumably ready to use
when you graduate.

Today, transnational education providers who participate in a
business worth billions of dollars have to offer a great deal
more than just home-country syllabi. They have to be culturally
sensitive, acutely aware of the clients' expectations and
standards vis-a-vis their own, take note of compatibility of
qualifications (which will facilitate recognition all round) and
be up-to-date with various other aspects which never bothered
them in the past.

One of the providers of distance education, the University of
Southern Queensland for instance, has put together a new course
of Comparative Law and Business after taking their clients' needs
into consideration. In their MBA program, students have been
taught the Australian legal system, including the business
regulatory environment, as part of their study. However, as many
of the students do not live in Australia and may not necessarily
work in Australia, it is considered that they need to learn about
other legal systems as well.

The conference has proven that the transnational education
industry has become very relevant to us in Asia, as we are an
importer region. A research study by IDP Education Australia,
Global Student Mobility 2025: Global Competition and Market
Share, predicts that in 2025, the Asian region will represent 93
percent of the demand for Australian international higher
education, Australia being one of the major English-speaking
destinations sought by importer countries in Asia.

Export of transnational education is no longer confined to
movement of students from their home country to the supplier
country. Program delivery can take place anywhere, University of
Southern Queensland being an example. The growth of National-Plus
schools in Indonesia, where students are given the national as
well as the International Baccalaureate curricula indicates that
transnational education is already a reality.

Given the situation we must not be shy in telling the
providers what we want. And to be able to do that we urgently
need to crawl out of our usual complacency and begin organizing
and planning. The danger glaring us in the face is the dreaded
cultural marginalization, either developed overseas where the
students are studying, or in our own country where the program is
being delivered.

The high costs of transnational education may also contribute
to the deepening and widening of the gap between the rich and the
poor. If those who have enjoyed transnational education are
proven more capable to compete in the job market, they will
eventually dominate the more lucrative-paying positions, while
those who cannot afford transnational education will have to take
the lower-paying jobs.

A well-planned scholarship program may help tamper this social
problem, seeing that an overhaul of the whole national education
system seems less viable in the immediate future.

There is no doubt that education is a crucial part of the
country's reform process and transnational education is here to
stay. Make the best of it.